Asia Preparing For The Return Of Kahn

Image by: China Daily

As earlier reports suggested, Oliver Kahn may well be on his way to coaching in Asia after he retires from playing. Kahn took a trip to China during the Bundesliga's Euro 2008 qualifying break and, after being welcomed by a mob, held a training session with 10 selected goalkeepers there. Kahn told Shanghai Daily:

"I have a lot of fans in Asia, especially in China, and it is my way of giving them back something for their support, and it is not just because of the fans that I want to be here but I am interested in China as well. I had a brief training session with some of them the other day and was surprised by their willingness to learn things. I am keen on discovering, developing and training goalkeepers here."

The investment of time and evidence of desire doesn't end there, though. Kahn has been actively involved in building buzz around his name via the web:

"He has already launched a Chinese Website (http://www.kingkahn.cn/) where he interacts with his fans and has loads of video footage of his games, Internet coverage of his training session, chat lines and soccer tips - perfect for early learners.

Youngsters send demonstration videos of their skills, which is analyzed in faraway Munich and reverted back with comments from the veteran keeper himself. The German already has a column on the Chinese portal Sohu.com (http://goalkeeperkahn.blog.sohu.com/) that connects him to local fans." (China View)

The further branding that Kahn is creating through web use in China is definitely Kahn-quality. I did some exploring on the kingkahn.cn website and it looks to be every fan and goalkeeper's dream. I wish it was in English, and I wish that more goalkeepers would create such audience friendly sites with video, etc. It also seems that the Sohu.com column that Kahn has is doing very well. His latest post from the 16th of November had racked up 425 comments when I checked it.

After doing this little bit of research it think its safe to say that we will see Oliver Kahn making the move to Asia in the near future, and perhaps some European-quality goalkeepers coming from Asia a little while later.